289 Flame 6

"Squelch!"

Lu Sheng easily avoided the pincers, instead grabbing them and pulling them out.

All the cheering immediately silenced.

The Preachers couldn't believe that they got destroyed so easily even when they were controlling the Warrior Devil, which was the seed of the Huge Devil…

This was unfathomable.

"Boom!!"

Lu Sheng stepped onto the huge crab. The huge crab instantly collapsed and made no more sounds.

"All it has is brute strength. What's the point of creating such a thing?" Lu Sheng was confused. But, it did supply a lot of Devil Aura.

He then looked around, only to see all of the Preachers scattering in fright.

"There's no use running, either." Lu Sheng stretched out his hand. Wisps of black-purple Devil Qi swirled in his palm, spinning faster and faster... and yet faster and faster... until transforming into a tornado, completely sucking in each and every Preacher in the cave.

Large numbers of Preachers flew into the air and got sucked into the black ball in Lu Sheng's hand.

The black ball maintained its spinning speed. All the flesh and Devil Aura it absorbed were burned up by the Eight-Headed Divine Pearl inside, converting it into pure Devil Aura for Lu Sheng to use.

Shrieks, wails, cries, and screams could be heard.

A countless amount of Preachers was sucked up and swallowed by the dense, black ball.

Soon after, every single Preacher was devoured, leaving behind only the remains of the huge crab.

"Too bad that I didn't run into an Ancient Devil…" Lu Sheng was slightly wistful. He stomped on the floor, and the ground immediately exploded open. The altar moved away, revealing the entrance to the next level.

"I still have enough Mental Energy for at least one more level… but if I want to level up my Devil Bodies right now, I still need a lot more Devil Aura and Devil Qi…"

The pitch-black cave entrance seemed like a deep, bottomless swamp. Lu Sheng looked at it, then shrunk his body and jumped into it.

This time, the cave was very deep. It felt as if he was dropping down a long, narrow tunnel. Only after five whole breaths did Lu Sheng hit the ground with a thud.

As soon as he landed, a huge tentacle as thick as his waist shot towards him from the side.

With a frightening whoosh, the huge tentacle reached Lu Sheng almost instantly.

***

The Prime Devil Sect. Surface level.

He Xiangzi was guarding the cave entrance with a few other people to prevent any devils from making it through their sect's gate.

The good thing was that this was a rural area, so there weren't a lot of random devils hanging around. Most of the Devil Army had gathered to attack one of the Nine Great Cities, f.e. White Bell City or City of a Thousand Sails.

'Why would a Devil Disaster appear all of a sudden? Master is still at the Banquet; I don't know how he's faring. Junior Apprentice Brother Lu is also gone…' Although He Xiangzi was in front of everyone, she was a complete mess.

But she still had to pretend that she was confident. This was the secret that Umbrella Girl Yingying told her. No matter how bad the situation was, she would have to remain calm and collected in order to keep everyone else at ease. Otherwise, your own people would collapse before the enemy even arrived.

"He Xiangzi, let me. You've already stood here for eight hours. You need to rest."

Zhan Kongning and Zhan Hongshen, the brother and sister, were also here. Zhan Kongning was the one who spoke. He had come here with his sister to look for Lu Sheng, but before they could return to their own sect, the Devil Disaster happened. With no other choice, they had to backtrack and come back here to the Prime Devil Sect to use the terrain to defend and wait for reinforcements.

He Xiangzi frowned and responded softly, "It's fine… I'm not tired, just worried… There's no more news from the cities, and I still don't know what happened to Master or Junior Apprentice Brother Lu even now… I'm worried…" 

"Senior Liu Shanzi is in the Snake Realm. If he really wanted to escape, even the Devil Army shouldn't be able to stop him…" Zhan Kongning comforted her.

Hearing this, all the disciples of the Prime Devil Sect nearby found a bit of courage. Their master was in the Snake Realm—he wouldn't die nor be injured easily. They should worry about themselves more. They needed to guard the sect and make sure that the Devil Army wouldn't take over.

He Xiangzi took the opportunity to stand out and cheer everyone on, successfully increasing morale a bit of.

As they were talking, faint hoofbeats sounded in the distance. A disciple on sentry duty came rushing back excitedly.

"Reinforcements are here! It's the Shangyang Family's flag!"

At this time, the more strength and power, the better. And not to mention, the Prime Devil Sect was on pretty good terms with the Shangyang Family. Their master knew Miss Shangyang Jiuli personally, and their first seat, Senior Apprentice Brother Lu, was the manager of the Shangyang Family for the North and a favored underling of Shangyang Jiuli.

With such tight relations, of course the Shangyang Family's forces would be viewed as friendly by the Prime Devil Sect.

Accompanied by the roaring sound of hoofbeats, a group of smart, powerful people led by Shangyang Jiuli raced over on their horses, their expressions hard and determined.

Shangyang Jiuli leapt off her horse, her sharp gaze sweeping over everyone who came running out of the Prime Devil Sect.

"I'm Shangyang Jiuli! Where's Lu Sheng!? Tell him to come out. We must leave immediately!"

"Leave?" He Xiangzi was taken aback, and her voice started trembling. "May I ask, is the situation in the cities already at this point...?"

"It's worse than you think!" Shangyang Jiuli replied sharply. "Lu Sheng! Come out to meet me! The rest of you of the Prime Devil Sect, if you wish, you can leave together with us. White Bell City can't hold on for much longer!"

Shangyang Linhui was the first to walk out from among the Prime Devil Sect disciples and merge into the Shangyang Family's group.

"Cousin, Senior Brother Apprentice Lu went into seclusion and has been missing since. No one can find him. What about the other sect masters? Most sects have Holy Weapons Masters to keep things in check, unless even so…"

"Four Holy Weapon Masters already died!" Shangyang Jiuli responded icily.

Shangyang Linhui and the others were shocked. Their faces turned pale as reality sunk in.

With a situation like this, the first thing Shangyang Jiuli thought of were her four big underlings, and the first one was obviously Lu Sheng.

As the general manager of the entire North, apart from being strong, Lu Sheng was also a prodigy at management, something she greatly valued. So, she came rushing over as soon as she could get out of the battle zone.

"Our Prime Devil Sect is located on hazardous land, so even if we run into the Devil Army, we can escape through a secret tunnel in the other direction. Additionally, we have completed plans in case of a Devil Disaster like this. Why won't Lady Jiuli first come in for some rest? We can plan this out more thoroughly?"

Shangyang Jiuli considered it. She turned around and saw everyone's exhausted faces. She was in the middle three grades of the Snake realm, so she naturally had high endurance, but the rest of her group wasn't able to keep with her like this.

"Okay, we'll rest."

They left a few people to serve as lookouts while the rest entered the cave and followed along to the Prime Devil Sect Square.

But no one noticed that underneath the stone pillar in the center of the Square, there were numerous gray cracks and splits, with a thick, white fog that filled the cracks.

An enormous, deranged consciousness was awakening slowly underground.

Large amounts of fog silently seeped into the dark and wet corners of the Prime Devil Sect.

***

A secluded, distant corner.

"Whoosh…"

Enormous amounts of fog gathered together and sublimed, forming a leg in only a few seconds. A huge, five-meter thick, deep blue leg.

"Storm Clouds… Storm Clouds… Storm Clouds…" a group of voices shouted. It sounded like fearful yell, wailing, and crying at the same time.

The huge leg slowly took a step forward. Quickly, a new leg formed behind it.

The two legs walked forward without a sound. As they walked, a huge, deep blue giant slowly appeared out of thin air.

All the giant's muscles and veins were apparent from the outside. Its eyes were pure white, but covered with faint, red veins.

"Roar!!!"

The giant roared towards the stone pillar in the middle of the Prime Devil Square.

There was no sound, only invisible vibrations. The vibrations rapidly spread out through the ground.

"Boom!"

A black building to the front right of the giant collapsed. After a brief moment, a large section of the rock wall behind him also exploded.

Amidst the rumbling, with the giant in the center, all the buildings in a fan-shaped area in front of him exploded to pieces.

"I… King of Storm Clouds, Bei Ni… am finally free… finally… resurrected…" the giant rambled in a deep voice. "Ants of the Prime Devil Sect, die… all die… hahahaha!!" His low rumble became a maniacal laugh.

"What's that!?" Shangyang Jiuli, who had sat down in the Visitor's Hall to rest, suddenly opened her eyes and stared in the direction where the blue giant formed, her expression serious. "What's that coming from over there?!"

"What's that?" He Xiangzi was confused. This was the headquarters of the Prime Devil Sect. What could there be?

Her gaze floated towards the square, and she suddenly blanked out.

"How… how is that possible!!?" He Xiangzi stood up abruptly, knocking over the table in front of her. It fell to the ground and broke into pieces.

Everyone looked in the same direction as her gaze. What they saw was that the huge stone pillar, which had never changed in thousands of years, was currently covered in gray cracks. The red runes on it were dull, as if they were candles in the wind, about to go out any second.

In that moment, all the disciples of the Prime Devil Sect slowly stood up and turned their heads mechanically, taking a look towards the Square.

Umbrella Girl, as well as Xu Chui and Ning San from the Crimson Whale Sect, who were helping each other with practicing their knife techniques, paused in their movements unconsciously and also looked towards the stone pillar.

In a dark cave somewhere else, a figure dressed in white was huddled in the corner, holding an ax. A beam of light fell through the only crack leading to the outside and lit up her face.

"The seal…" The white-clothed figure watched the collapsing pillar through the crack silently.

Inside the graveyard, Song Zian, his body half-transparent and his expression grave, gripped the metal railing tightly. He also watched as the stone pillar in the Square fell apart.

"The seal… finally…"

"Boom!!"

A huge noise.

As if it were a test tube filled to the brim, the stone pillar exploded. Large amounts of gray fog and smoke shot out, scattering stone pieces everywhere.

The seal the Prime Devil Sect created thousands of years ago finally broke…

***

Underground.

Lu Sheng grabbed the huge tentacle. Violet flames exploded, along with frightening amounts of Mental Energy.

The entire tentacle exploded into some sort of transparent sticky substance.

"My name is Carfe, the King of the Origin Power, the upper ruler of the deepest levels of the Devil's Abyss…"

A huge, slender figure walked out from the dark.

It was a creature with the upper body of a human but the lower body of some sort of huge, brown octopus. He was at least thirty meters tall and twenty meters wide.

"You're… not escaping?" Lu Sheng's creepy eyes with three irises locked onto him as he studied him with interest.

"Whoosh!!"

Instantly, the entire cave level became a sea of purple flames. The fire immediately engulfed the two.